I worked there in 1996 and have since returned to the city several times mostly because it's a great place to take a girl when you want to cheat on your wife if you live in Poznan. Bydgoszcz is described as the 'Venice of Poland' by IH's bumph. Indeed, Bydgoszcz does have a connection to water; the mighty River Brda courses through the heart of the city like a clogged up artery. Unfortunately, Venice it ain't. What can I say about the place? Well, it has a train station, which is handy when you've had enough of the utilitarian sprawl, which circles the rynek like a group of dour Scotsmen around a tray of free drinks. It also has a park. Other than that it only has one redeeming feature and that's Mosg, once the coolest bars on the planet.Now who knows? Oh yes,.... and then there's speedway.

The school has moved down the road since I was there but for sure it will be well equipped. We had cassette players, a video trolley and access to everything the ELT 'professional/backpacker' needs to ply his or her version of Headway, English File or Cutting Edge.

The teachers will be a mixed bag as usual. When I was there we had one whose only job before opting for TEFL was as a human guinea pig for pharmaceutical companies. You think I joking? The two most senior ladies, both around 50 and no strangers to kebab stands, had Polish boyfriends who were still at school and another teacher offered herself to the new male arrivals so much that she became included in the induction package. There were also some very good educators.

What's teaching there like you may ask? Generally it's a breeze. Everyone from beginner kids to adults doing proficiency exams and then there's Conversation Club, also known as Drinking Club once a week, which is always a winner. It will also greatly improve your chances getting laid with the local beer goggled beauties, who seem to look at English teachers like they're all Brad Pitt, when sozzled; that's you, not Brad Pitt by the way.

Then there's the accommodation and salary. After a busy day teaching the Present Perfect Simple to Polish honeys, it's often polite to invite the best looking one out for dinner. It's then traditional to fill her up to the gills with Zywiec and Wyborowa and get her back to the pad, having first promised her that it's not a one-night stand. Therefore, a nice pad is essential. That's the bummer. You'll be living in a crack ghetto somewhere near the city limit with a nut-job whose only previous incarnation was as a loony who'd let himself be tested on by GlaxoSmithcline. Kinda kills the moment. It ain't fun trying to rock a bird's world while your flatmate is making moaning sounds in his room while listening to 'Nagasaki Nightmare' by Crass at full throttle.

Finally, there's the salary. IH have advertised a top whack of less than 1,900Zl per month for an 'experienced' teacher. Substitute month for week and it would be OK. Four hundred and fifty quid a month is like one all night sesh with a girl off Roksa.pl or 60Zl a day in the very real world in which you will soon find yourself. On that money you'll have to order your cheese and ham by the slice, but not at the same time.

Well Sharter all you said is true, so there is no need to edit your post! you forgot to mention that here is a new Young Learners Co-Ordinator that is a cross between Jabba the Hut and a Beached whale, who has taken over the like-me or get-out situation. Most of the teachers live on the top floor of the school, so you can imagine how that goes with a date at night, and all the other teachers live in the badlands of suburbia. As for the money, well i think a performing parrot makes more!in 7 years now that is the first payrise of a total of 50pln.

I feel for you bro. Gong ain't exactly the Ministry of Sound....and trapesing around that freakin park on Sunday's cos no pubs open early really ain't all that is it? not that you can afford them anyways!!!

I worked there in 1996 and have since returned to the city several times mostly because it's a great place to take a girl when you want to cheat on your wife if you live in Poznan. Bydgoszcz is described as the 'Venice of Poland' by IH's bumph. Indeed, Bydgoszcz does have a connection to water; the mighty River Brda courses through the heart of the city like a clogged up artery. Unfortunately, Venice it ain't. What can I say about the place? Well, it has a train station, which is handy when you've had enough of the utilitarian sprawl, which circles the rynek like a group of dour Scotsmen around a tray of free drinks. It also has a park. Other than that it only has one redeeming feature and that's Mosg, once the coolest bars on the planet.Now who knows? Oh yes,.... and then there's speedway.

The school has moved down the road since I was there but for sure it will be well equipped. We had cassette players, a video trolley and access to everything the ELT 'professional/backpacker' needs to ply his or her version of Headway, English File or Cutting Edge.

The teachers will be a mixed bag as usual. When I was there we had one whose only job before opting for TEFL was as a human guinea pig for pharmaceutical companies. You think I joking? The two most senior ladies, both around 50 and no strangers to kebab stands, had Polish boyfriends who were still at school and another teacher offered herself to the new male arrivals so much that she became included in the induction package. There were also some very good educators.

What's teaching there like you may ask? Generally it's a breeze. Everyone from beginner kids to adults doing proficiency exams and then there's Conversation Club, also known as Drinking Club once a week, which is always a winner. It will also greatly improve your chances getting laid with the local beer goggled beauties, who seem to look at English teachers like they're all Brad Pitt, when sozzled; that's you, not Brad Pitt by the way.

Then there's the accommodation and salary. After a busy day teaching the Present Perfect Simple to Polish honeys, it's often polite to invite the best looking one out for dinner. It's then traditional to fill her up to the gills with Zywiec and Wyborowa and get her back to the pad, having first promised her that it's not a one-night stand. Therefore, a nice pad is essential. That's the bummer. You'll be living in a crack ghetto somewhere near the city limit with a nut-job whose only previous incarnation was as a loony who'd let himself be tested on by GlaxoSmithcline. Kinda kills the moment. It ain't fun trying to rock a bird's world while your flatmate is making moaning sounds in his room while listening to 'Nagasaki Nightmare' by Crass at full throttle.

Finally, there's the salary. IH have advertised a top whack of less than 1,900Zl per month for an 'experienced' teacher. Substitute month for week and it would be OK. Four hundred and fifty quid a month is like one all night sesh with a girl off Roksa.pl or 60Zl a day in the very real world in which you will soon find yourself. On that money you'll have to order your cheese and ham by the slice, but not at the same time.

Oh my goodness, here we go again. My username is actually based on this kind of post.

Your information from 1996 is a lovely story, but utterly useless to anyone considering Bydgoszcz today. I worked there very recently and it's a good place to work, especially for new teachers.

The staff are/were friendly and sociable, the students were great and the management were fine. The city is good for nights out/things to do, easy enough to travel to other places in Poland from etc.

Most of the teachers do not live above the school. When I was there 2 teachers lived above the school, and the rest lived in various places around town. My place was great.

The money is also fine. I socialised often, ate out etc as much as I did when I lived in the UK, bought clothes etc as often as in the UK. It's fine. Unless you have a hard drugs problem, the money will be no problem. I never knew a teacher to struggle for cash when I worked there.

I left the school then but if you hone your reading skills you might notice that a. I said I've returned several times b. I stated that the school will have all the resources and a mixed bag of teachers c.the money is crud and the accommodation not much to write home about and d.Bydgoszcz is a pit.

a. is a fact; b. is on the money; c.has been backed up by someone who taught there last year and then we have d. Pick up any tourist brochure on Poland and try to find Bydgoszcz. You'll probably find, Krakow,Torun, Sopot, Wroclaw and Zakopane. You might even find Poznan, but Bydgoszcz?please!! It's a dump.

You sound like a newbie who doesn't have a clue what he's talking about.

How dare you tell people reading this board that 11 quid ie $17 per day is an OK salary in the European Union!! It's slave labour. It's actually less than the UK taxable threshold and that's why they pay you through Glenrex. Oh...you forgot to mention that.

Good on you Sharter! you are right its either a newbie or a member of the Management in IH, but what you forgot to say it that the Glenrex address in the USA is actually a car park!what the advert forgets to tell you is that you are contracted i think for 26 hours and then its overtime, but divide it between 45 minutes and thats a crazy timetable. I remember last year when Koszalin was part of the group, there was a teacher fighting for his returners bonus, and the management only like to use Torun and Koszalin as part of the organisation when it suits them, and to remove them when its in their advantage. But after you mention Glenrex, who do you actually work for?IH or a car-park attendant called Glenrex?and of course the money is nothing considering its only an extra 100pln a week above the government minimum salary, so how is that survivable?

It's hard to take this profession seriously if you're doing it in Poland. Just look at the never ending posts/threads on this forum about the ridiculous, sorry excuse for schools on here. And don't even try and tell me that it's just crotchity ESL'ers doing senseless bitching.....Poland is pure ESL ghetto. Sure there are a couple of schools out there that aren't bad but hell.....every school I ever worked for......like working for a damn circus. Absolutely zero professionalism.

As long as the profession in Poland remains this way, it will continue to attract the same kinds of teachers, DOS's, owners, etc.